Pay no attention to the people behind the curtain

Monday, August 28, 2006

Where do I go to file a complaint myself?

The campaign manager for state Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis) filed a complaint with the State Elections Board today accusing Wauwatosa City Clerk Carla Ledesma of illegally altering the voting record of opponent and Wauwatosa Ald. James O. Sullivan to indicate he did not vote twice in the September 1998 election as the Reynolds camp has charged.

Ledesma defended her actions today, saying she changed the record in recent weeks to correct an error and maintained she "did nothing wrong. I don't categorically go around changing voter records," said Ledesma, who insisted she was not asked by the Sullivan campaign to make the change. "I have a poll list that clearly shows he did not vote" in Wauwatosa in September 1998, Ledesma said. "Yes, I corrected the record."

Reynolds' campaign had contended that Sullivan also had voted in Whitefish Bay, where he used to live and where his father, who shares his same name, also lives. State Elections Board spokesman Kyle Richmond said local clerks are authorized to correct election records, as long as they document those actions.

Richmond said the Elections Board had no authority to investigate fraud under the statute cited in the complaint by Reynolds' campaign manager, J.J. Blonien. He said the board will forward the complaint to the Milwaukee County district attorney's office.

(My emphasis.)

Jim McGuigan's got the paperwork to prove that Blonien's full of it here. I'm really really looking forward to this blowing up even more in Tom Reynolds's camera-shy face. Though he may think that any publicity is good publicity, it's starting to get embarassing.

But what was more intriguing to me was the notion of filing my own ethics board complaint. At first, though, I thought I should send an email off to jerome.blonien@legis.state.wi.us, and ask Jerome how he's managing to file all his pointless complaints between bouts of work for Reynolds's State Senate office staff.

As it turns out, I just skipped the step of emailing Jerome and filled out this form. It might not be a bad idea if all of us did.